


time stamp (a pathological anatomy of the heart)

by blue-plums (arabesque05)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medical, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2019-09-16 05:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16947567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arabesque05/pseuds/blue-plums
Summary: hinata usually works peds oncology, but occasionally gets pulled onto shifts in the ed because, a long time ago, she got trauma certified and the hospital has never let her not regret that.





	time stamp (a pathological anatomy of the heart)

Hinata usually works Peds oncology, but occasionally gets pulled onto shifts in the ED because, a long time ago, she got trauma certified and the hospital has never let her not regret that.

“Not great,” she recounts to Ino Tuesday night, which -- allowing for Hinata’s natural soft-spoken kindness, probably translates to ‘fucking terrible’ in Ino-speak. “Kakashi-sensei came out of a patient room and told me to wrap the guy up -– a head wound, he said -- so I go in, expecting all this blood. But the patient looks fine -- sitting on the exam table, no wounds, no blood, nothing. Then I go around the back and --” Hinata makes a shrugging gesture, at a loss for words. “It was like -- like a slice out of a watermelon, you know? He was just missing a chunk of his skull -–”

“ _What_ ,” Ino looks up from her schedule for the day shift’s patient assignments. Ino is charge nurse for tonight, a situation she somewhat ungraciously tolerates. “His  _skull_?”

“iI _guess_  he’d had brain surgery a while back?” squeaks Hinata. “And then, AMA  _obviously_ , just ...left? Before they could put the plates in?”

“ _What_ ,” says Ino again.

Hinata nods, “Just -- gaping open, his brains there. I went back out and told Kakashi-sensei that I  _couldn’t -- I_  mean, how was I supposed to bandage  _that --_?”

“Fuck no, you shouldn’t,” agrees Ino.

“And sensei said not to worry, use some wet dressing -- you know, just saline gauze -- and pack it in? Just pack it in, he said -–”

“That bully.”

“Well, so I did -- packed in dressing, wrapped it up; and I leave for five minutes to see if we could schedule something to put in plates, right? So his brains aren’t just exposed like that? And then he’s  _gone_  when I come back. Just left!” Hinata worries at her braid, makes a face at Ino, unhappy. “Just before my shift ended, we get a call for an incoming head trauma -–”

“Same guy?”

“Yeah -– paramedics picked him up at the homeless shelter on 53rd.”

Ino makes the same unhappy face back at Hinata. Around them, the ward is quiet in the half-light, with only the  _shush-shush_  of ventilators and the low beeps of heart monitors. “It happens,” Ino says, at length.

“Yes,” sighs Hinata.

Ino makes a gesturing motion around, says to Hinata, “At least we got cancer kids here, huh? What an upgrade.”

“You’re terrible,” accuses Hinata. But she smiles anyways, and stands up. “Well, time to hang another TPN for 212. Thanks for listening.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Ino. “Now I’m definitely going to brag to Haruno about how RNs are totally tougher: you fucking reached into someone’s brains -–”

“It wasn’t  _inside_ ,” insists Hinata.

“Just casual, no surgical prep, nothing -- hey!” she calls after Hinata. “Do med count with me later.”

Hinata waves a hand in agreement, and then turns the corner to duck inside room 212.

Ino stays at the nurses station. She taps her pen against the day shift schedule -- but patient assignment is boring. She checks the physician schedule. Forehead is on call. Ino thinks, but not very long: it’s an easy decision.

“What?” grumbles Sakura on the phone.

“Hey, Forehead,” says Ino cheerily.

“Are you fucking troll-calling again, you troll?”

“Listen,” says Ino, “Hinata was  _badass_ last weekend. Listen.”

“Why can you never tell me things over lunch like a normal person?” whines Sakura. “I’m not on call for your emotional oversharing, Pig; I’m on call for  _medical emergencies_.”

The sound of rustling, and then, low in the background, a man’s voice: “Is it fucking Yamanaka again?”

“Forehead!” exclaims Ino, in scandalized glee, “are you  _finally boning him_?”

“For God’s sake–-!” Sakura sounds exasperated, though it isn’t clear at whom.

“Well, my bad, my bad!” says Ino. “Good for  _you_ , Forehead -- not that, you know, I  _entirely_  support this life choice to shack up with a felon -–”

“ _Acquitted_ ,” hisses Sakura.

“–- but he’s definitely a looker.”

“I’m going to hang up now,” announces Sakura.

“Wait, wait -– bring Naruto around tomorrow morning before we go off-shift. Hinata has been  _very_  brave and good; and also -- bullied by that pervert teacher of yours -- speaking of. have you told him that walking around with a surgical mask on  _all the time_  makes him look super sketchy? Is it necessary? Does he think it contributes to his sex appeal? Is he that ugly?”

“Pig, I’ll have Naruto buy Hinata breakfast if you’ll let me hang up.”

“Yeah, you go bounce on that Uchiha dick, girl. G’night.” Ino hangs up on Sakura’s indignant squawks -- though, probably not that indignant, given the obvious hypocrisy of her moral outrage.

Well, thinks Ino, settling in for the long night: good for Sakura. For a long time there, Ino had been worried -- sakura was smart, and terrifyingly well educated, and all she had to show for it were her baby cancer patients and one malpracticing fuck-up who refused to be her boyfriend. The baby cancer patients were one thing -- you had to do your best, nothing for it, someone had to care -- but at least the malpractice that became a felony that became a drug bust sting operation…well, whatever Law & Order dramatics were happening there, at least it got sorted out and Sakura finally got her ridiculously good-looking, possibly criminal, college sweetheart in bed.

Sakura would insist that this isn’t the proper retelling of events, that there were  _subtleties_  and  _nuances_  to the situation and etc. etc.; but whatever. Overly convoluted  _physicans_.

Ino -- in the tradition of good nurses -- cuts to the heart of things. 

 


End file.
